


Waves and Thunder

by LandOfMistAndSecrets



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Dream Bubbles, Established Relationship, Extremely Cliche Dream Bubble Smut, Fluff and Angst, Karkat Is Still Extremely Insecure, M/M, Meteorstuck, Porn with Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 19:33:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7187204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LandOfMistAndSecrets/pseuds/LandOfMistAndSecrets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I really wanted to have this done for Karkat's birthday but it took forever to write and I missed it by three hours!!!</p><p>Anyway, Dave and Karkat end up in a dream bubble together and pass the time in the obvious fashion. Specifically I just wanted to write a fic where there's a bunch of dialogue up to and during the smut because heyyyy I like that shit and I hope you do too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waves and Thunder

Karkat wakes up with the overwhelming feeling of something _wrong_ twisting in his gut. 

He'd fallen asleep in Dave's block, which was overall not a terrible place to spend time if one looked past the ever-present mess and Dave's stubborn unwillingness to do jack-fucking-shit about it. But it, like _every_ room on the meteor, had a few important traits. The rattle of machinery, shuddering through the vents. The cutting chill that increasingly clung to everything, the farther they rode away from the Green Sun. The flat, stale quality of the air, the metallic tang to it. 

None of that is present, now. Instead he opens his eyes and sees a billion stars. It's still a little cold, but there's humidity behind it, and an actual breeze flits over them and -- what the fuck? 

Dave's block is gone, and the bed with it. Instead, they're sprawled out on some lumpy, grassy knoll and when he lifts his neck to look around, incredulously, he can see the thick treeline not far off. He scrubs a hand over his face. Dave shifts against him, tightening his arms around him, and Karkat wonders if he should even bother to wake him. They apparently slept through the loudspeaker warning, assuming there even was one. Rose and Kanaya are supposed to be on watch, tonight, but God knows it's equally likely they stopped bothering to watch for incoming dream bubbles and just decided to make out, instead. 

He can't muster up any annoyance at them. He understands the compulsion too well to judge. 

Luckily they don't seem to have been deposited anywhere overly dangerous. There's a strange _crashing_ noise nearby, kind of like thunder, which is a little concerning, and the occasional insectoid noise from within the canopy, chirps and trills that he really finds more comforting than anything else. Really his only complaint is that the ground here is fucking uncomfortable and Dave doesn't seem to have noticed because he is basically using _him_ for a pillow. Karkat sits up, nudging him gently. 

"Dave," he whispers, loudly. It feels weird to break the silence, here, like talking too loud might burst the bubble around them and deposit them somewhere worse. 

"Mm?" Dave makes a sleepy, inquisitive sound, which Karkat finds embarrassingly endearing. He blinks awake, eyes unfocused but wearing the sort of genuine, unguarded smile Karkat still mostly only catches glimpses of while he's half-asleep. "What's up?" He asks, cracking a yawn. 

"I have no idea where we are, this time," Karkat says. He peers around. "It almost looks like Jade's planet, but the stars aren't right for that, so..." 

Dave's face screws up as he frowns and squints around them. He disentangles their limbs, which is slightly disappointing, and stares up at the sky. "I don't know, either," he says. "No lava, though, so that's something." 

Karkat snorts. "Or oceans of blood," he agrees. 

"At least your weird fucking blood oceans aren't like, instant death on contact," Dave teases. "Just some awkward flailing around and killer stains that will never come out." 

"Don't remind me," Karkat mutters. He gets to his feet and heads toward the source of the thunder-like sounds, which are almost rhythmic in their frequency and certainly aren't stopping, and notices abruptly that wherever they are, they've been deposited right on the edge of a cliff. Luckily his eyes are more than capable of parsing their surroundings in the dark -- if you can even call it that, with how bright the moon is overhead. One moon, silver and singular. He squints up at it. "It has to be earth," he says. "So there's that, at least. Come look at this." Down below -- a dizzying distance down, really -- the ocean is crashing against the cliff side. That explains that. It extends all around them, the moonlight glittering off its surface all the way to the black horizon. 

Dave joins him, standing close, nearly touching but not quite. Karkat rolls his eyes and takes his hand. Dave jumps a bit, but flashes him a little grin, and -- fuck, he's so ridiculous. And ridiculously _cute_ , which is embarrassing to think about, so Karkat shoves it away and focuses on the spray of the ocean down below. It's kind of hypnotizing, in a way. The waves never stop coming, and the way they burst apart on the rocks is strangely beautiful. 

Fuck, there's something weird about this place. It's got him thinking like he's writing a romance novel. 

"It might be Jade's place," Dave suggests, squeezing his hand. "Do you know anyone else who'd have memories of an island?" 

"Not really," Karkat says. "I mean, Gamzee lived near the ocean, I guess, and Vriska had her pirate planet, but..." 

"Yeah, nah, this is probably earth. I recognize that moon. I'm pretty sure." He looks up, again. "I never saw this many stars, though." 

"Why not?" 

"Uh. Light pollution, I guess? And actual pollution. Cities are pretty gross, man. I keep forgetting Alternia didn't have cities." 

"We did offworld," Karkat says, a little wistfully. "Thousands and thousands of cities, stolen from lesser civilizations." A sad little twinge runs through him, which is stupid, but there it is. "I probably never would have seen a single one, though." 

Dave looks at him; Karkat shrinks under his gaze, watches the ocean, instead. There's this sucking sound when the water goes out, this rush as the next wave comes in to fill the void, then _BOOM,_ water breaking over rocks. The land of waves and thunder. Jade probably loved this place, if indeed this is her home -- her _dream_ \-- that they're accidentally intruding in. 

"Do you ever get the insane urge to just... jump?" Dave asks, softly. Karkat snaps his gaze back to his. 

"Don't you dare," he says, and actually takes a step back, pulling Dave with him. Dave just chuckles, a little ruefully, Karkat thinks. 

"Not like that, man, I'm not itching to off myself or anything like that. It's just this crazy feeling, I guess. I used to get it back... back home, too." He falters a little over the word _home;_ he always does. "Crawl to the edge of the rooftop and just stare down, and there was always this moment where my brain would short out a bit and I'd think -- what if I did it?" 

"Then you'd die," Karkat says. His heart is actually beating a little too fast, thinking about Dave having these thoughts. 

"You really don't feel that?" Dave blinks at him. His cheeks are a little flushed. "Not at all? I know it's not just me, Rose has it too." 

"You've talked about this with Rose?" That makes him feel a little better, strangely. Dave shrugs. 

"I told you, it's not that I want or ever wanted to die. It's just... you know, fuck it. Never mind. Maybe it's a human thing. Rose had some fancy French word for it and said it was totally natural, okay? I'm not weird." He pauses. "Okay, I am weird. But I'm not like, suicidal, come on, Karkat, stop looking at me like that." He bumps him lightly with his shoulder. Karkat makes an effort to smooth out his brow. 

"I definitely don't feel that, whatever it is." Karkat shivers a bit, pulls Dave in a little closer. "Maybe it is just a human thing. Or maybe I've just spent too long being obsessed with doing whatever it took to keep living." 

"Maybe," Dave agrees, and they lapse into silence. It's not uncomfortable; Dave's hand is warm in his, and it's actually warmer on what is presumably Jade's island at night than it is in their rooms on the meteor. It's a pleasant kind of coolness instead of a biting chill. The air smells like plants and salt. If all the dream bubbles were like _this_ , Karkat might make more of an effort to sleep more often. 

Dave shifts beside him and casts a restless glance around. Karkat smiles, fondly. The silence wasn't uncomfortable for _him_ , but Dave always feels the need to fill them up. 

"Do you think she'll like, show up? Here?" He looks a little nervous. "Is that even possible? Or would it just be some dead version of her that never got into the game, like... that actually happened once, in Davesprite's timeline." 

"Dave, I have no fucking clue what's possible and what isn't, anymore." 

He sighs, runs a nervous hand through his hair. "Yeah. That's fair." 

"I don't know if Jade and John are dealing with dream bubble bullshit while they cross the yellow lawnring, whatever the fuck that is, but somehow I don't think so? Wherever they are, Jade's powers can't reach us, so it's somewhere completely outside the bounds of paradox space itself, somehow, which..." He shivers. "I can't wrap my head around, to be honest. And the dream bubbles are definitely within the bounds of paradox space. So." 

"I guess." 

"A ghost Jade could probably still show up, though, sure." 

Dave winces. "I hope not." 

Karkat starts to ask him why, but stops before he gets the first word out. He already knows why. Every ghost Jade that may or may not be out there roaming the dream bubbles, Dave feels responsible for. He knows the feeling too well. There's an endless supply of dead Nepetas, dead Equiuses, dead Eridans and dead Feferis, dead _Kanayas_ out there, dead friends as far as the eye can see, and Karkat hates it too. Hates how he misses them all so bad he could almost join them, how seeing their eyeless ghosts makes him feel suffocatingly guilty for somehow still living. 

"Yeah," he says instead. "I hope not, too." 

"Should we, like... I don't know. Explore? Go anywhere?" 

"I don't see why. It seems safe enough, here. This bubble will probably pass soon, and you know I hate showing up somewhere completely unexpected in the meteor -- at least if we stay here we can be pretty sure we'll just end up back in your block." 

Dave sighs. Nudges him with his shoulder, again. "I wish I'd thought to bring cards," he teases. "Hey, I could totally take you flying over the ocean, it would be hella romantic." 

"I don't know what your obsession is with always wanting to carry me around," Karkat glares, "But _absolutely not._ " 

"We could find somewhere where we can be pretty sure no ghost Jades will come walking in on us and, I don't know... find some way to pass the time?" Dave raises his eyebrows. Karkat feels his palms go damp, which is humiliating because Dave still definitely has one of his own hands folded in his and can definitely tell. 

"I don't see why we have to go anywhere to... do that," Karkat argues. "Ghosts can do whatever the fuck they want, any place is equally likely to lead to disaster, so if you want to roll the dice here is as good a place as any." He juts his chin out, daring Dave to argue. 

Dave bites his lip, considering him. Karkat fights the urge to squirm. "Right here, huh?" He says, finally, lips folding into a little smirk. Karkat's heart stutters a little as he fully considers the offer. He shakes his head. 

"That was -- rhetorical! I didn't _mean_ that. Obviously I'm not--" he growls, pulls his hand away from Dave's. Dave just stares at him, still wearing that insufferable smirk. Karkat narrows his eyes. "What... _exactly_ , did you... what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking we probably won't get many chances like this, you know, just you and I and _maybe_ a rogue ghost Jade who will probably be courteous if she sees us and fuck off without us ever even knowing she was there--" 

"We have chances like this _without_ rogue ghosts every day on the meteor!" 

"-- _And_ a stunning cliff side view of the fucking ocean, with like a billion fucking stars and our ridiculous earth moon hanging over us like our own personal celestial nightlight. You supposedly made those for us, right? What, you're telling me that _you_ , Karkat Vantas, the most hopelessly romantic person I know, don't find this opportunity a little... affecting?" 

Karkat opens his mouth, closes it. Opens it again. "You're telling me that _you_ , probably the _least_ romantic person I know, _do?_ " 

Dave's smirk melts into an actual smile, and, _oh no_. Karkat can't stand against Dave's _smiles_ , not when they're gentle and genuine and catch him completely by surprise. He steps forward. Dave tilts his head at him, questioning, and Karkat makes an irritated scoffing sound and then steps up, puts his hands on either side of Dave's stupid handsome face, rolls onto his toes and kisses him before he can lose his nerve. Dave chuckles against his lips, but it's a pleased sort of chuckle and he brings his hands up to rest on Karkat's hips, pulling him closer.

It's... nice. It's always nice, kissing Dave. He moves to deepen the kiss first, lips parting, inviting, and okay, yeah, this is _really_ nice. He's warm and so goddamn willing, it still short circuits Karkat's pathetic thinkpan sometimes that Dave _wants_ to do things like this with him, and Karkat cracks his eyes open just a tiny bit and appreciates the dark flush over Dave's freckled cheeks, his long, pale lashes, the way his hair looks silver in the moonlight... 

Fuck. He breaks away, breathing hard. Dave raises his brows at him. 

"Something wrong?" He asks, and he's a little breathless, too. 

"No," Karkat says, because it's true, there's nothing wrong, but it _feels_ like a lie and apparently Dave thinks so too, because he frowns at him. 

"If you don't want to do anything, we definitely don't have to, Karkat, we can just sit..." 

"No, it's not that." Karkat swallows. What the fuck _is_ wrong with him, all of a sudden? "I, just." He starts, stops, thinks. "I _want_ to, fuck, Dave, I always want -- with you -- but I just..." 

It hits him, and he feels so fucking stupid it takes what little breath he has left away. He puts his hands on his knees, tilts over, rasping a pathetic laugh. Dave is still frowning. "Karkat?" He asks, concern dripping off the words. 

"It's too... nice," Karkat laughs, shutting his eyes, shaking his head. God, he is pathetic. "That's what it is. It's too -- God, Dave, I don't even know how to explain." 

"Try?" 

"It's like, this whole thing, you and I..." Karkat exhales, loudly, straightens. "This feels like too much. I tell myself every day not to -- not to hope for -- God, this is embarrassing. Not to hope for too much, I guess?" 

Dave's brows are pulling down into an outright glare, now. "Karkat," he says, and there is such _warning_ in the way he says it... Karkat swallows and continues, perhaps unwisely, but he's started now and like hell if he's going to stop. 

"So it's just you and I and the meteor, right? And the meteor is like its own little world, its own confined space where everything outside it feels a million worlds away and not altogether... _real_ , okay? So, I always tell myself, just appreciate what you have while you have it, because the second we're off the meteor all bets are off, it's a whole new universe, out there, full of other people and opportunities and choices, and... God, Dave, being here, like this, it's... it's like I'm making a promise to myself that this is what it _can_ be like, for us. One day. And I don't -- I don't know if I can make that promise, when..." 

"When _what?_ " Dave steps toward him, puts his hands on his shoulders. They're warm and distracting, and the strange _unreality_ of this place and its atmosphere and starlight, it's overwhelming. Karkat shuts his eyes against it, against Dave, against _hope._ Hope is so fucking dangerous. Hope and want and the whisper of a future he's sure he'll never earn. 

"When I know I'll never deserve it," he says, because it's the truth, and why not be honest? He can hardly be any more pathetic, tonight. Dave's fingers tighten on him almost painfully. 

"Karkat, what the fuck are you talking about?" He sounds so upset. Karkat's gastric sack does a backflip in his thoracic cavity and chills run down his back, his arms. "This is what it _will_ be like, and what the fuck, you've already earned it. You've earned it a thousand fucking times over, just for being you."

Karkat laughs, and he can't keep the derision out of it. Dave gives him an irritated little shake. 

"I'm serious," Dave snaps. "Listen, I'm fucking _serious_ , right now! I don't know what the new universe is going to be like, okay? I have no fucking idea. But what I _do_ know is that we're going to walk into it together, god dammit. That meteor isn't -- our entire relationship doesn't begin and end there, are you serious?" Karkat is shaking his head, silently denying it, even though he _wants_ to believe it so bad his whole body aches with it. Dave puts a hand on Karkat's face, wrenches his chin up, and Karkat's eyes flutter open. God, this is exactly like a shitty novel. He should be crying crystal tears, now, beg Dave to wrap his arms around him and take him away from it all like a good little protagonist. 

"I'm really sorry I'm like this," he says instead, and Dave growls and kisses him again, hard and definitely a little angry, the hand on his waist hooking around his back and yanking him close, instead. Karkat doesn't resist it -- he's not sure he's capable of resisting Dave, especially not when he gets like this -- but he doesn't kiss back, either. 

"God dammit," Dave breathes, pulling away, glaring at him. "Kiss me, you asshole, come on." 

"Dave--" 

Dave sucks in a breath and kisses him again, relentless, and this time Karkat wraps his arms around him and lets his lips part just enough to give him what he wants, and the urgency with which Dave takes it, tongue darting in, a muffled sound of pleasure filling the space between them... it's _very_ convincing. Karkat lets himself be swept away on that; Dave is all heat and urgency, desperate to prove -- what? That he loves him? Karkat never really doubted that, and suddenly it's crushingly important to him that Dave knows that. Knows it isn't about him. It's just Karkat. _Karkat_ is the one who is fucked up, here. 

He tries to talk. "Dave," he manages, between kisses. "I want," he continues, but Dave swallows the rest of his sentence, kissing him quiet. He tries again. "I want you to know," he gets out, fast and raspy and all mashed together into one long word, _iwantyoutoknow_ , and this time Dave steps back, breathing hard, eyes flickering over his face. 

"What?" 

"It's not you. It's _nothing_ you've done or haven't done, it's just me--" 

"Oh, fuck you," Dave says, and then the hand that was on his face slides up into his hair and Dave's fingers tighten in it, enough to be a little painful. Karkat swallows. His body is definitely responding to this, even if his mind is still busy marinating in self pity. Dave so rarely lets black feelings turn into actual black _romance_ , even when it's definitely a part of whatever the fuck they are doing, and strangely it makes him feel a little better. It's less perfect undeserved romantic novel bullshit and more... them. Only he and Dave could take a starlit tryst by the ocean and turn it into something vaguely _caliginous._ It's absurd. _They're_ absurd. 

There is no one else in all of paradox space that understands him half as well, wants what he wants, needs what he needs. 

If he can't hold on to that... 

He growls back, deep in his throat, and Dave's eyes widen a bit as Karkat kisses _him_ , this time, rough and demanding, claws needling a threatening promise against the fabric over his shoulders -- but he has to be careful, careful, because humans are fragile and Dave has a specific and very low threshold. Karkat slides his lips off of Dave's and kisses up his jawline, instead, pausing to nip at his ear. He doesn't _really_ feel especially black, right now, just the echoes of what Dave was doing to him, which actually makes this easier, because when he really _does_ it's a lot easier to get carried away and take it too far.

Dave's fingers loosen in his hair, and he shivers against him. He's gone very tense. 

"I fucking hate it when you do this, you know?" Dave says, while Karkat drags the points of his teeth lightly over the pale skin of his throat. Dave swallows, clutching at him. "I wish, just once, you could understand -- how many fucking people _care_ about you, you fuck, not just me, but -- ah, fuck!" Karkat's claws are poking holes through his fancy pajamas, but that's all right. They're self-repairing. 

"Stop talking," Karkat suggests. 

"Fuck you," Dave replies. "I _love_ you, you piece of shit. The least you could do is give our fucking relationship the benefit of the doubt." 

Karkat stills against him. "Do you want to do this, or not?" 

"Do _you?_ Or are you just trying to get me to shut up? _Yes_ , I want you. I _always_ fucking want you, it's a fucking problem, if I'm being honest, which is another reason, by the way, that I'm not just going to ditch you the second we beat this shitty game and maybe have an actual future to start looking at!" 

Karkat just breathes against him for awhile, absorbing that. Dave's fingers are moving in his hair, and they're -- gentle, soothing, completely at odds with his tone. His head spins. It's ridiculous how even when Dave is objectively _angry_ at him, just the fact that he's showing so much emotion -- plainly, honestly, without hedging or faking or trying to downplay it at all... it's ridiculous how _happy_ it makes him. He spent so many months fighting so fucking hard for every little smile and frown, and now years later, here they are, yelling at each other in the moonlight. 

God, this emotional whiplash is killing him. The quadrant whiplash, too, but that's a more pleasant sort of ache, a symptom not of a broken relationship, but rather, a special one. The one that matters most in his entire pathetic existence. 

"You're the only one in any universe who knows exactly what I need," Karkat says, muffled into his throat. Dave sucks in a breath, fingers stilling. "Exactly what to say, what to do, how to put up with my bullshit. You're the only one who ever will, I think." 

"Good," Dave says, softly. 

"I want you, too," Karkat says. 

"Right here?" he asks, an echo of his earlier teasing, and warmth spreads itself through Karkat's middle because -- it's okay. Everything is okay, and right now he wants Dave so badly he can barely stand it. 

"God, yes," Karkat breathes, and he punctuates it by fisting his hands in the fabric around Dave's collar and sinking down to his knees, dragging Dave with him. They go down together, and Dave actually lets out a startled laugh, and the sound of it sends sparks up Karkat's posture pole, a feeling which only intensifies once they're kissing again, mouths moving frantically together, a little messily, sloppy and uncoordinated like this isn't their millionth time doing this, together. Karkat laughs back. 

"We're gonna get grass stains all over our shit," Dave warns him, all breathless amusement. "People are gonna ask questions, Karkat--" 

"I don't give a fuck," Karkat informs him, pushing him over onto his back. Dave laughs again, and Karkat drapes himself over him, blinking down into his stupid grinning fucking face. 

"Well, hello," Dave greets him, breathless and teasing. 

"Go fuck yourself," Karkat replies, affably. Dave reaches up, buries his fingers in Karkat's hair. 

"I would, but I have it on good authority that you were planning to take care of it for me. Right out here in the open like a god damn animal, too, _scandalous._ What _would_ your mother say. Mother-grub-thing. Whatever, you know what I mean." 

"I'm not going to touch you until you stop talking," Karkat informs him, and Dave snaps his lips shut so fast that Karkat can't help but laugh. 

It feels good. All of his shitty insecurities -- they aren't gone, but they feel less heavy, now, pushed aside, the positive feelings are winning out, for once, and it feels so damned fucking _good._ He puts all of that, he hopes, into the kiss he delivers next, straddling Dave on his knees, claws resting lightly on his round, freckled cheeks, eyes closed, sighing softly into his mouth. There's very little talking for awhile, just this familiar exploration, their breathing going ever more shallow and uneven until finally Dave breaks first. His eyes snap open and he makes this soft little needy sighing noise, blinking up at him. 

"Karkat," he says. 

"Yes, Dave?" 

"This is so _fucking_ uncomfortable," he says, and he grins as Karkat snorts and sits up. 

"Do you want to stop?" 

"No, which is a testament to how god damn irresistible you are, so you should probably be pretty flattered, right now --" 

"Oh, definitely." 

"-- But I'm not taking this off, either, this shit is itchy as fuck --" he pats the grass around them. "No way." 

"We don't _have_ to take anything off," Karkat assures him, blinking down at him innocently.

"You're not even going to argue?" Dave tilts his hips up, and the fabric of his goddamn pajamas is so thin, it never hides _anything._ Karkat sighs. 

"Yes, Dave, I'm aware of the state of your bulge, thank you." 

"You could have fooled me," Dave says, tilting up again, rocking against him. Karkat slides his hands under his shirt, over his warm, sweat-damp skin. "Playing it so cool, I see how it is. You're completely desensitized to my plight, by now, once you've had Dave Strider once you've had him a thousand times, so who cares if he's fucking dying underneath you, really, he probably deserves it, an outright just death--" 

"God," Karkat laughs, tracing little circles over his stomach. The muscles there twitch encouragingly under his ministrations, which is gratifying as fuck. "Stop whining. I said you don't have to take them _off_ , Dave, not that I wasn't planning to get into them anyway." 

"Oh, shit," Dave says, watching enthralled as Karkat removes his hands from under his shirt and moves to toy at his elastic waistline, instead. "That's hot." 

"Good," Karkat murmurs, and then he lets go and sits up. Dave gapes at him. 

"Oh, come on! What the fuck!" 

"Sit up," Karkat says, raising a brow, daring him to argue. Dave swallows, sighs, sits up, but the bereft look he'd been adopting evaporates completely when he sees Karkat fumbling with the button on his own pants. There are weeds in his hair. Karkat laughs, quietly, unzipping himself and wriggling out just enough to let his bulge out into the open, which feels extremely fucking strange and vulnerable and _embarrassing_ , and if he thinks about it too hard he'll completely lose his nerve, so he just... doesn't. He doesn't think at all. He notes the way Dave's eyes shoot immediately to his bulge and the way he licks his lips, and, fuck. "Come here," he demands, and Dave jumps a bit at the authority in it, shuffling forward on his knees. 

"What do you want me to do?" Dave asks, and it's half teasing, half genuine inquiry, Karkat is pretty sure. 

"First, this," Karkat says, hooking his thumbs into Dave's waistband and pulling down, pants and boxers and all, just enough to free the parts of him Karkat is really interested in, at the moment. 

"If anyone walks in on us now, we are so fucking busted," Dave says.

"Dave, shut the fuck up," Karkat shoves his shoulder, lightly, with a snort. "God, why would you say that? Come here." 

"Come here, how--?" 

"Like this," Karkat says, rocking back to plant his ass firmly on the ground -- which is every bit as uncomfortable as promised, lumpy and cold, but whatever. He crosses his legs and grabs Dave by the hips, pulling him forward, and Dave seems to get it after a second, settling into Karkat's lap, knees pressed into the ground on either side of him, and, god, it's so nice, being this close, wrapped up together. Dave casts a significant glance downward, and then looks him in the eyes, questioning. 

"So, can I touch you, now, or..." He sounds so _eager_ , it's -- ridiculous. Karkat's heart actually skips, a little. It's stupid, but Dave's excitement has a way of making _him_ more excited, like some kind of embarrassing eternal concupiscent feedback loop, and -- fuck. 

"Wait," Karkat says, and he reaches down and takes both of them in hand, pressing their bulges together, and the way Dave jerks in his lap and the _noise_ he makes, fuck, it's incredible. Almost as incredible as the feeling of sliding up and around his rigid warmth, and they are _definitely_ going to ruin both sets of their pants, not to mention their boxers, and, well, Dave's will probably sort themselves out overnight like always but _Karkat's_ things are definitely going to be ruined, after this. Not that it matters. He laughs, breathlessly, shoving the thought out of his mind. Dave is squirming in his lap, wiggling his hips closer, murmuring breathless encouragements. His eyes are closed and his lips are moving and Karkat is struck once again by just how fucking _handsome_ he is, especially like this, completely at his mercy. 

"What," Dave demands, rocking against him, pressing their foreheads together, "Is so fucking funny, Karkat?" 

"Your face," Karkat says, and Dave's eyes open, his brows crease. Karkat's bulge pulses around him and he shudders, a desperate little moan escaping him. 

"Fuck you," he manages around his sounds of pleasure. "You -- fucking love my face, admit it." 

"I do," Karkat says. "Especially like this." 

"God," Dave ducks his head, presses his lips against Karkat's throat, speaks in muffled tones against his skin. "Shut up, Jesus." 

"You _asked_ , shithead," Karkat reminds him, sliding his hands back up under his shirt, up and down over his back. God, this is good. A little awkward, not the most comfortable thing they've done, but -- good. Dave just breaths for awhile, shallow and desperate, occasionally pressing kisses down the side of his neck but mostly just moaning incoherently. Which is nice. Karkat rocks his hips up, and Dave grinds down in response, and it feels good, but he needs a little more, so... "You can touch me, now, Dave," he says, and Dave half moans, half laughs against him, shoulders shaking.

"Shit, all right," he says, and then he reaches down between them and just... does it. He grips the slick, tangled up mess there and strokes down the length of them, squeezing them tighter together, and the friction of his hand and his bulge simultaneously is so damn perfect he could just die. Karkat tells him so, moans it out loud, hips stuttering upward, and oh, fuck, his pants are _definitely_ ruined. Fuck. Dave moves his hand slowly, at first, but quickly works into a rhythm. 

Karkat clutches him tightly, kisses his face, his lips, whispers and groans encouragements into his ear. When he gets close, he puts his hand over Dave's and moves with him, adding the pressure of his grip, guiding his fingers to where it feels best. Dave is a fast learner, and the physical sensation coupled with the simple searing fucking intensity of looking into his eyes while they do this breaks him with embarrassing ease. Dave lets out this ridiculous choking, gasping laugh as Karkat sways his hips and grips Dave's shoulder hard enough to bruise while his genetic material gets absolutely fucking _everywhere_ , forget their pants and their boxers, Karkat's shirt is ruined, too. Dave doesn't stop moving his hand, if anything he moves faster, and Karkat clenches his teeth every time his palm runs over his overstimulated bulge, which is retracting around him, now, and -- Dave goes tense all over when he comes, like always, adding his weird human genetic discharge to the disaster pooling between them with a messy groan. 

Dave slumps heavily against him, breathing hard. Karkat wraps his arms around him, laughing, trying to support his boneless, floppy dead weight, which is difficult because a lot of the strength has completely gone out of him, as well. 

"Oh my god, stop," Karkat gasps, when Dave throws his arms over Karkat's shoulders and just _hangs_ off him. Karkat can't hold him up, not after that, and they go tumbling to the ground, with Karkat flat on his back in the grass. Dave nuzzles into his throat, laughing between kisses. 

Their hips are pressed together, and the open zipper of Karkat's jeans is cold and biting against his thigh, and -- god, they are a _mess._

"At least there's no mattress to clean up," Dave suggests, like he's reading his thoughts. Karkat nods. 

"I am, however, most probably going to have to throw this entire outfit into an incinerator the second we're back." 

"Oh well," Dave laughs. "You have like, a thousand exactly like it, right?" 

Karkat thumps him affectionately on the back. "No, assmunch, I really don't, and if I keep having to ask Kanaya for new clothes she's going to start getting suspicious." 

"She'll live," Dave sighs, lifting his head up to stare down at him. 

He still has grass in his hair. Karkat lifts a hand to pick it out. 

"Hey," Dave says, his face suddenly gone serious. Karkat sighs. 

"Yes, Dave?" 

"I just... hm." He presses their foreheads together. "Whatever's next, whether it's a new universe or whatever, I want you to know -- I'm going to do everything I can to make sure you're there with me, all right?" 

Karkat considers this, turns it over in his mind. Dave nudges him with his chin. 

"Yeah," Karkat says, finally. "Okay. I know you will." Dave smiles, almost shyly -- which is hilarious, after what they just did, _this_ is what makes him feel bashful, but that's just Dave. "I'll do everything I can, too. However little that is," Karkat can't help adding. 

"You matter, god dammit." 

"To you, at least." 

"You matter a whole fucking _lot_ , Karkat. To me, to everyone. I'm going to keep kicking your ass every time you suggest otherwise until it gets through, I swear to god." 

"Well, if this is what you consider 'kicking my ass' to be, I guess I can't complain." 

"Okay, but you will, though." 

"Probably." 

Dave has one of his silent laughs, the kind where he just presses himself tight against him and Karkat can only tell he's laughing because his shoulders shake throughout. When he's done, he lifts his head and says nothing, just kisses him right there in the dirt. 

They're still kissing when they exit the dream bubble, tangled up together on the metal floor of Dave's respiteblock, smelling like grass and sex and the sea.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr at [@landofsomethingsomething](http://landofsomethingsomething.tumblr.com)!


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